


it’s audrey

by orphan_account



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, One Shot, Requested, Starting A Family, domestic! Varchie, varchie, veronica and archie have their first child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 18:53:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15646848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: seventeen and they just had a dream, now they’re twenty four and they finally know what it’s like to have their heart living outside of their body.or(one shot request) Veronica and Archie have their first child





	it’s audrey

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings Varchie fandom, this is the first one shot that’s been requested to me. By @varchieelove on tumblr.

 

——————————

 

It’s been a long night after Betty’s eighteenth birthday party, _legal!_ they shouted once the clock struck midnight and she blew out her candles, blonde hair illuminating gold. The six of them friends, Archie and Jughead and Veronica, Kevin, Cheryl and Toni. Technically is still isn’t after Betty’s birthday yet, but Archie might have taken the privilege of having FP’s empty trailer all to themselves too far and one too many swigs of celebratory beers ended with them staggering up his house steps footing all a mess.

 

Veronica sighed, dropping Archie’s heavy arm from around her shoulder and letting him fall slowly onto the couch, while she shuts the front door and locks it. She’s still very mad at him for making them leave her best friend’s birthday party early but he looks so snuggly and happy that she can’t really resist him.

“I’m going to get you water, don’t move honey” she didn’t mind using their more private nicknames when it was just the two of them around. Speed walking to the Andrews’ kitchen, she fills a glass with refreshing cool water and hears Archie whimper some reply. “Here, slowly”

She’s leaning on her arms and guides the glass to Archie’s lips, smiling when his cheeks flush red and it’s so endearing. He takes a really long gulp and falls back on the pillows, panting like it was the biggest task of his life. “You don’t have to take care of me, Ronnie.. you’re not my mom” he whines.

“Oh really?” Veronica raises a questioning brow, already pulling off her jacket to get more comfortable. “Then who is gonna take care of you, hm? Just try and sleep it off babe.”

  
He does try, but only succeeds in falling into a half zone of somewhere asleep and still aware of the living room fan, his t shirt sticking to his skin and the weight of Veronica’s legs draped over his own. The raven haired girl has since changed into one of his big shirts, curled up with a book to drowse her more. Honestly, sitting here right now she doesn’t mind leaving the party and Betty was totally understanding. It’s nice and calm even when Archie isn’t awake with her, she just feels at home.

“What are we gonna name the baby?” He says suddenly.

  
“ _What_?” Veronica almost jumps. She had no idea Archie was even awake. “What are you talking about, what baby?”

  
“One day.. I wanna have a baby with you. Wouldn’t that be nice?” He waved his hand somewhere at her, lids half closed and that’s when Veronica knew he was dreaming. She decides to ignore him and smiles to herself, but Archie isn’t forgetting it. “What are we naming the baby?”

  
“Oh I don’t know!” She feels totally stupid having this conversation with someone who’s never gonna remember it, but part of her feels intrigued too. She’s never _really_ thought about it fully.

“Remember when....” he slurred off into some incoherent words and Veronica laughs at how drunk he is. “You made me watch that _boring_ Audrey Hepburn movie with you? Mmm”

“It wasn’t boring!” She beats his arm and almost regrets it because for half a second Archie recoils like he might throw up and ruin his father’s carpet. “It was not boring.”

“Sorry Ronnie, but it was _boring_... what about Audrey?”

  
Veronica stays quiet and bites her lip. What is Archie thinking? Where did this come from? Why is her heart racing and she’s sweating just a little bit - the boy isn’t fully present, Veronica! “So.. we’re having a girl?” Her toes dig into the couch nervously and she doesn’t notice holding her breath.

 

“Definitely.” Archie springs up, surprising her out of nowhere, bringing their faces close and reaching for her black hair to play with like he’s enthralled. He swoops in and lets their noses brush a minute, not realising how flattered he can make a girl feel. The living room feel like it’s closing in on them. “And she is gonna be.. the most beautiful girl in the world, _just like her mother_ ”

 

Veronica has to sit back and not get ahead of herself. She looks at this boy, they’re just seventeen, she loves him, and he’s saying crazy things that shouldn’t make so much sense inside her head because it’s ridiculous. They’re seventeen. This isn’t forever. High school sweethearts aren’t forever, that’s just how it is.

  
“You’re pretty fun when you’re drunk.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
_ 7 years later _

 

 

 

 

 

  
“So we wanted you guys over tonight to tell you something special, and it’s really big so prepare yourself” Veronica says one night over the dinner table.

  
“Is that why Archie is holding his camera now? What is this? I hate being filmed” Jughead is already looking uncomfortable and uses a napkin to wipe away any traces of Veronica’s home made lasagna, always the camera shy.

Archie can feel his huge grin breaking. “We just wanted to get you guys’ reactions”

  
“Wait V, is this what I think it is?” Betty knows she’s probably already right, and her eyes have lit up marvellously just thinking about it. Oh my god, is this really happening?

  
“We’re pregnant!” Veronica finally screams, Betty runs from her seat to crash Veronica in a hug and even Jughead is cheering. Archie goes over to get a shot of the teary eyed women, and wraps Veronica in a hug too while she sobs relentlessly. This really feels like a dream come true. She’s carrying her baby, _their_ baby, a little life inside her that’ll forever be loved and cherished, and she already loves it so much more than herself.

Betty and Jughead raise their glasses to _The Andrews baby!_ And Veronica snuggles closer into Archie’s side, their New York apartment filled with joy and love that one late night in December.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
Months passed and milestones achieved, Veronica being the most typical excited new mom with her stacks of mommy magazines, watching endless videos on birthing and pregnancy, and talking daily with her own mother on the phone. It seems as though since becoming pregnant this has been the closest she and Hermione have been in a long time, if not ever. She’s still adjusting to all the cramps and nausea and suddenly she hates all her favourite foods - her jeans stopped fitting halfway through and she panicked right in front of the mirror; but Archie rushed in to comfort her and remind her this is all part of growing the perfect baby inside her.

She loves all of it too, sitting in the white rocking chair Archie had bought her as a birthday present for breast feeding and just watching their baby in the near future. She twirls a piece of long black hair around her finger, other hand on the little bump of her stomach while she stares out the window. It’s so sunny, and she realises as the seasons change how fast this journey has been passing already.

  
Archie is sitting with his legs sprawled out on the floor trying to build the baby crib, like the absolute champion he’s been this entire time. “You know, I think it’s a boy” she says idly.

Archie drops the pieces in his hands and turns around so he can see her face, which Veronica almost laughs at because he looks like a shocked little puppy. “Wait - you saw it at the scan?”

“No! No of course not, I wouldn’t do that without you”

Archie doesn’t show her but he lets out a breath of relief. He knows it’s her baby and she can find out if she wants, but he kind of _really_ wants to keep it a surprise until the birth just like he suggested all those weeks ago. Veronica’s keen on shopping, but really it’s a small matter and if it makes Archie so excited, seeing how amazing and hardworking he’s been with her pregnancy, she doesn’t mind at all not finding out.

“I just have a feeling. Like a really strong, gut feeling.”

  
“Well that’s good, Ronnie” Archie beams up at her, his red hair falling around his face messily looking like an innocent boy even after all these years. “Usually moms can tell that kind of stuff”

Veronica bites her bottom lip and smiles. _Moms. Her._ “Well I was thinking names too - what? I have to find some way to fill my time when you’re at the studio. It’s not like I can stand looking at my laptop for too long - that’s why I got another assistant while I’m currently on pregnancy leave. And I thought what about Nathan?”

She waited a wary moment while Archie lifts the base of the crib with a little grimace and sets it upwards. She hasn’t thought _too much_ about it, but the name has a nice ring to it and it’s simple and sweet.

“I like that. We could call him Nate for a nickname. But I don’t mind anything, as long as you love it.” He smiles over his shoulder ruefully at her and she rolls her eyes playfully. “What if it’s a girl though?”

“What, you don’t trust my mom senses?”

  
“I’m only _asking_. You’re not a psychic anyway, Ronnie”

  
“Hm..” Veronica rocks forward on the chair and feels the soft carpeting beneath her toes, it sends a thousand little jolts of comfort and flashes of a memory only she remembers, so fond and comforting.. when they we’re just seventeen and dreaming of their whole life ahead. “Fine. _If_ it’s a girl Audrey. I’m gonna go start dinner now honey, come to the kitchen when you’re done here”

She gets up and kisses his hair affectionately once before preparing their dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

“She’s going to need an emergency C - section”

 

“What?” The doctor, Doctor Giwens is looking at them both candidly while Veronica and Archie turn white in shock. “Why?” Her hand, hooked up to the IV searches to find Archie’s and her voice is wiped of life, weak and tired.

 

“The baby has the umbilical cord wrapped around it’s neck, and we can’t find a heartbeat right now. We need you to remove all your jewellery, piercings and eye contacts. Mr Andrews can you just help me fill this paperwork while we get Mrs Andrews ready for surgery” Doctor Giwens is speaking so fast, _clearly_ , but Archie struggles to make out what she’s saying as his head goes blank with fear.

  
The baby. Their baby.

 

After ten hours of strenuous labour, her water breaking and contractions more painful than the most intense period cramp she’d ever had, you could call it ten hours of _torture_. Veronica had never felt a pain like it in her life, unending, relentless, gradually growing stronger and would not satisfy until this baby came out. And now they’re saying she has to do a C - section.

Everything happens in a flurry of black and white that she can’t make out because the pain is engorging and she’s so _exhausted_ by now, any poking and prodding and the nurses tying her hair up and covering it and pushing the bed to the operation theatre is something she could barely acknowledge. _Please just make sure my baby’s okay.._ she wants to tell them, two nurses clad in blue scrubs wheeling her under a bright light that’s blinding to all her senses. But it barely comes out as a mumble.

  
Archie is signing papers, filling documents and dressing himself in the same blue plastic attire before following Veronica inside. He thinks she would be proud of him, remembering all their important information and staying calm while a hurricane makes itself known. The baby can’t breathe. He keeps remembering that. Forty weeks, the white cupboard at home with it’s tiny little onesies and swaddles, the crib he built imagining a smiley little baby inside.. _what if it stays empty_

 

  
No, he can’t think like that right now. Archie finishes one last form and walks over to the bed under a fluorescent light shining on it, his legs making a crunching sound with the plastic on it when he walks. Other than that, there’s only the sound of rubber gloves snapping and some low voices talking while preparing. He takes a deep breath and steps next to Veronica, seeing her eyes are staring blankly ahead with tears pooling in them.

  
They finally give her an epidural, and Veronica was not prepared at all for that one since she assumed and wanted to have a natural birth. She almost forgets about the ten hours of painful labour after the unpleasant experience of having a needle in her spine. Once the epidural starts kicking in though, her head feels woozy and almost ready to give up.

 

“The doctors say I should head out and pass your stuff to Betty and Jughead before they start. Maybe I’ll call your mom too, just for a minute” he says softly by her ear, running a thumb over her cheek where the tears have dried but they still taste salty on her lips. Her eyes are closed, but they open up when she hears his voice.

  
Archie’s not sure if she heard him because she doesn’t respond, only looking a little heartbroken that he has to leave her for a while. _This is so hard_... her heart feels so heavy and everything else is light, flying up to the ceiling while her heavy heart is the only thing holding her down on this bed making her not leave.

  
“You’re coming back, right?”

  
Veronica knows it’s a silly question but she can’t help asking him, and it weighs a ton on his shoulders. He smiles at her, using that same thumb to wipe away the one lone tear sliding down her cheek. “Of course. I would never leave you alone, kay?”

 

He holds her hand and walks away until it’s too far and they have to let go, and that short period of time where he’s gone is the worst of all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it’s finally time for the operation to start, Veronica can’t feel a thing other than some pressure where things are happening. But she still feels scared. And more fear on top of an entire sleepless night, medication and screaming so loud at some points they had to remind her there are other patients in this hospital - she almost feels like she can’t feel anything. Except scared and worried about their baby. Little did she know she’d be spending the rest of her life like that.

  
“I’m scared babe. I don’t wanna do this alone” she tells him while they’re behind a tall plastic covering, behind it is where the doctors are having their tiny baby delivered.

  
“Then hold my hand, we’ll do it together. I’m here with you” she reaches for his right hand and holds on tight, making sure to focus on her breathing and all the relaxing thoughts until a loud cry fills the silent room.

  
And another life is there with them.

 

“Oh my god!” She cries and turns to Archie, who is crying himself. “It’s our baby! He’s okay!”

 

“Baby’s all healthy. 6 pounds nine ounces, born at 11 on the dot. Do you wanna see first before we clean up?” Doctor Giwens announces and they can hear the smile in her voice. In that moment Veronica and Archie are so wild and enthusiastic that they don’t stop smiling and squeezing each other’s hands, until Doctor Giwens hands over the baby for Archie to hold just for a second and show Veronica.

 

When Archie lays eyes on his child, he swears he sees his entire life flash before his eyes. That he realised his life hadn’t even started until he met this baby, this screeching, white covered baby in his hands. It’s surreal.

 

Veronica feels drunk on the feeling like it’s finally over, her baby is safe.. and he’s in his daddy’s hands.. her eyes start shutting in exhaustion and struggling to keep them open and see, every part of her body had come down with the force of this past day all at once.

She’s about to drift off into sleep with the sound of her baby crying and she never knew she could feel this much, when Archie turns around and holds up their baby in his hands, a grin so wide on his face because he’s never been this happy.

 

“It’s Audrey” he says, barely able to hold back the sniffles in his voice when Veronica lays eyes for the very first time, on their daughter.

 

  
She sees her like a dream, like an angel, the glaring light behind them like the perfect glow.

“Beautiful...” It’s the last thing she remembers before falling asleep, and the first thing she’ll remember the rest of her life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later when Veronica has finally resurfaced to earth, honestly just too excited to see her baby daughter - she’s been wheeled back into her private room and stitched and cleaned up and she feels actually kind of fresh, getting that feeling when you’re a little kid and you have brand new toy to play with.

  
She has a new baby in the world.

 

Audrey is completely content laying with her mummy, she latches on perfectly that the nurses are impressed, so is Veronica. The last few hours she spent with her daddy watching over her, making prayers and promises he would always keep. Memorising every soft contour of her little face and the smoothness of her skin. Now Veronica gets to spend this time with her baby cuddled in her arms and getting to know the person she already loves more than anything else.

  
_Now, I know what it feels like to have my heart living outside of my body._

 

 

Later Betty and Jughead finally have the go ahead to come in, along with Hermione who is teary eyed and hugging everyone. Betty’s hugging everyone too. Jughead is a little awkward around the baby but he congratulates Archie and Veronica and gets the little one a stuffed snake with a bright pink tongue. Archie promises to put it in her crib at home.

  
Kevin and Cheryl and Josie have been called, they’re on their way to New York as fast as they can.

  
Fred arrives just as Archie comes back up with food for everyone. They stop outside the room and hug, Archie cries one last time with his dad there in the middle of the hospital hallway. He’s a father. His son, his pride and joy is a father now and he can vividly remember the day when Archie was born himself. Mary was just as prepared as Veronica was, and Fred told Archie he was much more clueless than Archie had been. He’s proud of him. He always is.

  
Veronica still can’t sit up because it hurts too much, so the nurse elevated her bed for her to eat and enjoy her family’s company. The hospital room feels like it’s bursting with good energy. She and Archie are retelling the birth experience all over again to Fred while Betty coos over the baby in Hermione’s arms.

 

“She looks like Veronica, doesn’t she?” Betty observed the cute little button nose and a tuft of dark hair, smooth caramel skin.

  
“She does, but I think she has Archie’s ears” everybody laughs at that. Veronica can’t feel happier watching her mom with her baby, and knowing that their precious daughter is going to be surrounded by so much love and support the rest of her life. She’s going to be absolutely spoiled, too.

 

  
“Oh she’s so beautiful, _mija_ ” Hermione says for the tenth time, admiring her granddaughter who’s eyes are wide and she’s _awake_ , the biggest brown eyes a baby could have. “What is her name?”

  
Veronica reaches for Archie’s hand to find comfort in, and she smiles even bigger, watching them. Maybe her gut was wrong, but she couldn’t be happier about it.

  
“Audrey. Her name is Audrey Cordelia Andrews.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> leave a comment and kudos if you reached the end! :) :) 
> 
>  
> 
> if you want to leave a one shot request, you can do it in the comments or on my tumblr @ff16xo 
> 
>  
> 
> ———- xo, Fallon


End file.
